News

Two citizens of Georgia, Merab Khalvashi, Rector of the Batumi University, and Miranda Turmanidze, a scientific researcher at the Batumi Archaeological Museum, have been put on the sanctions list of Ukraine. They are outraged by the sanctions imposed on them.

There was no shootout among followers of Sheikh Batal-Khadji in the Ingush village of Surkhakhi, and reports of a split in the Batalkhaji Vird are truthless, members of the Vird assert.

The court has found Pavel Grib, a citizen of Ukraine, guilty of inciting his female acquaintance to commit a terror act in a Sochi school.

About 1500 Russian military servicemen of the Southern Military District (SMD) took part in the exercises held at Abkhaz training ranges, the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has reported.

At least eight convicts, including residents of Chechnya, committed a mass self-mutilation in protest against the actions of the colony administration in Mordovia. The FSIN (Russian Federal Penitentiary Service) considers the protest to be unjustified.

The celebration of the Circassian New Year was held in Maikop with authorities' support. In Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, this day is not celebrated. The Circassian New Year comes from paganism; it is not a folk custom and is not popular among the Adygs, since most of them do not want to sacrifice their Islamic identity, activists have stated.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has awarded the citizen of Azerbaijan, Adalyat Akhverdiev, a large compensation for the violation of his right to private property, obliging the authorities of this country to pay 146,000 euros under his complaint.

President Salome Zurabishvili's proposal to create an additional format of dialogue with Russia due to inefficiency of Geneva discussions is contrary to Georgia's interests, the country's opposition has stated.

In Dagestan, the armed underground has changed its way of life and has come to the form of secret units; therefore, it is too early to declare the complete absence of militants in the republic, report analysts.

Gulnara Rustamova, a well-known Dagestani human rights defender, a co-chair of the movement "Human Rights Protection", was killed in the Syrian city of Baguz, her friend Ayat Abdurakhmanova reported.

Law enforcers accused activist Anastasia Yemelyanova of disorderly conduct and threatened her with opening a criminal case after she had complained about counterfeit goods from the local market. According to the activist, corrupt law enforcers stand behind the counterfeit trade.

Examinations showed that General Manvel Grigoryan accused of embezzlement does not suffer of any diseases incompatible with the arrest, report investigators. Manvel Grigoryan should be released, since the arrest adversely affects his health, the defence insists.

During the shelling attacks on March 20-21, units of the Armed Forces of Armenia used large-calibre machine guns, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for Azerbaijan reported.

Protests of taxi drivers in the capital of Georgia will not entail a postponement of the introduction of new rules, according to which taxi cars should be painted white, announces Vice-Mayor Irakli Khmaladze.

The sanctions list compiled by Ukraine includes three citizens of Abkhazia and five citizens of South Ossetia who observed the elections in the Donbass in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DNR and LNR, respectively), which Kiev treats as illegal separatist entities.

In Rostov-on-Don, the court began to consider the case against Aslan Yandiev, accused of committing two terror acts in North Ossetia. Public prosecutors suggest Aslan Yandiev had links with militants of Shamil Basaev, and the defendant completely denies the guilt.

A repeated application has been submitted to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Ingushetia for registration of an initiative group to hold a referendum on the issue of the border with Chechnya. This was announced by Magomed Mutsolgov, a rights defender, who chaired the sitting of the initiative group.

On March 19, the Chechen TV showed a video with Akhmat Kadyrov, filmed in 1999, in which he criticized the situation in the republic and the invasion of militants in Dagestan. The TV's initiative is intended to strengthen the image of Ramzan Kadyrov's father, shaken after the statements of the blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov, residents of the republic say.

Oyub Titiev, the head of the Grozny office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", will be able to apply for the conditional early relief (CER) in seven weeks if he does not appeal against his verdict. The CER will allow him to continue working in Chechnya or in any other region of Russia, Pyotr Zaikin, an advocate, and Oleg Orlov, a board member of the HRC "Memorial" have explained.

The tenth official celebration of the Circassian New Year is scheduled for March 21 in Maikop, the capital of Adygea. The holiday, which was originally considered a family one, over the years united the Adygs (Circassians) and interested other nations, scientists believe.